With multiple SEC-approved Bitcoin ETFs now a reality, it’s likely many more high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors will enter the crypto space. For those who want more flexibility and control over their assets, but are also looking for peace of mind in terms of security and storage, a specialist crypto custodian service should be considered.
When selecting a crypto custody service, people should consider their priorities, risk tolerance, and the level of control they wish to maintain over their assets. Factors such as the provider’s security infrastructure, regulatory compliance, fees, and ease of access to funds are crucial.
Our research revealed that while many providers offer detailed information, some do not fully disclose their insurance coverage, fee structures, and regulatory compliance details. We have contacted these companies to seek further clarification and will provide updates as we receive more comprehensive information.
The following is a list of providers who are currently prominent in the crypto custody space.
Crypto Custodians Compared
BitGo
BitGo operates globally providing cryptocurrency custody services for institutional clients. The company is based in Palo Alto, California, and has offices in London, Singapore, and Tokyo. It also offers hot wallets, SAFE custodial wallets, and self-managed wallets for different levels of control and access. For clients prepared to accept more risk, Bitgo offers financial services such as trading, borrowing, lending, staking, and access to decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. It is the sole custodian for wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), which allows Bitcoin to be used on the Ethereum network.
Fees: BitGo charges a monthly fee based on the number of wallets and the amount of assets under custody. The fee ranges from 0.05% to 0.15% per month, depending on the tier and the asset type.
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: Bitgo is a Qualified Custodian – regulated and audited by the South Dakota Division of Banking and the NYDFS.
Insurance: Claims up to $250 million in insurance coverage for ‘theft or loss of keys’ of its cold storage assets.
Coinbase Custody
Headquartered in San Francisco, Coinbase’s custody service is a part of Coinbase Prime. It supports over 400 assets, including NFTs and DeFi tokens. Coinbase Custody allows clients to participate in governance, staking, and Web3 activities without removing their assets from cold storage. Popular with US institutions, Coinbase Custody manages the cold storage for the Franklin Templeton Bitcoin ETF. The minimum deposit at Coinbase Custody is $1,000,000.
Fees: Coinbase Custody charges a setup fee of $10,000 and an annual custody fee of 0.50% on assets under custody. The minimum balance required is $1 million. There are additional fees for staking, governance, Web3, and other services.
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: Coinbase Custody is a qualified custodian and a fiduciary under New York state banking law.
Insurance: Claims a $320 million insurance policy.
Fidelity Digital Assets
Launched in 2018, Fidelity Digital Assets is a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments with offices in Boston, MA and London. The company offers custody services for Bitcoin and Ethereum only. In addition to crypto custody, Fidelity Digital Assets provides trading, access to liquidity providers, market data and research.
Fees: Fidelity Digital Assets charges a custody fee of 0.35% per year for holding digital assets, and a trading fee of 0.1% per trade for executing orders on its platform or through its network of liquidity providers.
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: Fidelity Digital Asset Services, LLC has been granted a ‘Trust Charter’ by the New York Department of Financial Services. For crypto companies, a Trust Charter can serve as an alternative to obtaining a BitLicense, (another regulatory approval issued by the NYDFS specifically designed for virtual currency businesses). While both licenses permit companies to operate in New York, the Trust Charter provides a broader range of financial services beyond just cryptocurrency.
Insurance: None disclosed.
Bakkt
Bakkt is based in Alpharetta, Georgia and offers institutional-grade custody solutions. Bakkt does not lend or rehypothecate its clients’ assets, ensuring that what’s yours is yours. The company provides 24/7 response support and multi-zone physical storage for its crypto custody clients.
Fees: Bakkt’s custody fees are 0.1% per month for Bitcoin and 0.2% per month for Ethereum, with a minimum fee of $100 per month.
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: Bakkt Trust
Company LLC is a New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) Qualified Custodian.
Insurance: Claims to be insured “according to policy limitations” but provides no details.
Unchained Capital is a bitcoin-native financial services company. It only custodies Bitcoin and specializes in providing collaborative custody multi-signature vaults and loans for bitcoin holders. While Unchained is clearly targeting the institutional market, it does offer ‘collaborative’ custody solutions that are potentially well suited to individuals. In such a scenario, Unchained essentially co-manages a client’s crypto. The client still has their wallet keys (not your keys not your crypto), but wallets are multi-sig and Unchained must sign transactions and assist with security.
Fees: The more assistance you require the more it costs. Personal vaults are $250 per annum. Concierge onboarding (if required) is $750 and ‘Signature’ class service (which is institutionally targeted and includes dedicated account management, reduced trading fees, and more) is $6000 a year.
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: Unchained does not have any crypto specific licenses, but is licensed as a money transmitter in many US states.
Insurance: None disclosed.
Xapo Bank
Based in Gibraltar, Xapo VASP Limited operates a banking app that integrates crypto and traditional finance. In terms of custody, Xapo allows you to choose how to store your Bitcoin, with different options such as Vault (in an MPC wallet), Savings Account, Wallet and Card. Each option has its own features and benefits, such as PIN confirmation, 48-hour transfer delays, 1% annual interest, and Lightning Network integration.
Fees: Xapo charges a 1% fee for buying or selling cryptocurrency. No specific custody fees are disclosed on its website.
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: Xapo VASP Limited is registered with the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission under the Financial Services Act 2019 as a ‘DLT institution’ under Permission No. 26061.
Insurance: Xapo offers a deposit guarantee scheme of up to €100,000 per customer but only for fiat deposits.
Based in New York and part of the Gemini exchange ecosystem, Gemini offers cold storage custody solutions for high net worth and institutional investors. Customer assets are segregated using unique digital addresses that are independently verifiable on their respective blockchains.
Fees: Gemini Custody charges a 0.4% fee per year and an additional $125 charge for withdrawals
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: Gemini is a fiduciary and qualified custodian under New York Banking Law and is licensed by the State of New York to custody digital assets.
Insurance: Claims $75 Million in cold storage insurance coverage for certain types of crypto losses from its platform.
Cactus Custody
Operating from Hong Kong’s ‘Special Administration Region’, Cactus Custody is a crypto custody service provided by Matrixport, a leading digital asset platform based in Singapore. While it does offer offline ‘vault’ custody services, it also promotes wealth management solutions for trading, DeFi, earning, and NFT storage/marketplace integration. It supports over 200 digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, DeFi tokens, and NFTs.
Fees: Cactus Custody charges a fixed annual fee of 0.5% for cold storage and 0.8% for hot storage. It also charges a withdrawal fee of 0.05% for cold storage and 0.02% for hot storage.
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: Operates with a Hong Kong TCSP Licence (for trust companies).
Insurance: None disclosed.
NYDIG
NYDIG is a subsidiary of Stone Ridge Holdings Group, an alternative asset manager based in New York. The company provides Bitcoin cold storage custody and financial services to institutional investors, private clients, and banks. The company offers various solutions for the Bitcoin network such as lending, borrowing, trading, derivatives, and structured products. The company also partners with banks to enable them to offer Bitcoin products and services to their customers.
Fees: Not disclosed
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: NYDIG Execution LLC holds a BitLicense and a money transmitter license from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). The company is a qualified custodian under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.
Insurance: Not disclosed.
Bitcoin Suisse
Founded in 2013, Bitcoin Suisse offers cold storage custody for crypto assets. It says its vault is audited annually by PwC. Bitcoin Suisse also offers several complimentary services such as staking, and crypto loans.
Fees: 0.3%-0.6% per annum for custody calculated daily.
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: None disclosed
Insurance: None disclosed.
Hex Trust
Hong Kong-based with offices in Singapore, the UAE, Vietnam, and Italy, Hex Trust offers custody, DeFi, brokerage, and financing solutions for institutional and private clients. It supports over 100 digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, ERC-20 tokens, stablecoins, NFTs, and security tokens.
Fees: Hex Trust charges a flat fee of 0.1% per month for custody services, with a minimum fee of US$100 per month.
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: Hex Trust operates with a Trust or Company Service Provider (TCSP) license in Hong Kong, a VASP license in Dubai and France, and an OAM registration in Italy.
Insurance: Claims to have “crime insurance” but no details are provided.
Anchorage Digital
Founded in 2017, Anchorage Digital is headquartered in San Francisco, California with offices in New York, South Dakota, Singapore, and Sioux Falls. Anchorage provides crypto custody, staking, trading, governance, and settlement services for institutions. It supports over 70 digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Flow, and Audius.
Fees: Not disclosed
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: Holds a federal charter from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as a crypto bank.
Insurance: Claims ‘Industry-leading’ insurance but provides no details.
Cobo Custody
Based in Singapore with offices in China, Japan, Korea, and the US, Cobo provides full custody and co-managed custody solutions. The company was launched in 2018 and supports over 70 blockchain protocols and 1,800 tokens, including NFTs. For investors with a higher appetite for risk, Cobo also provides access to yield-generating products such as staking, lending, and mining.
Fees: Cobo fees start at $99 per month with different tiers having different quotas for assets under custody and outgoing transaction volume.
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: Claims multiple licenses including; US – Money Services Business, Singapore – Registered Fund Management Company, and Hong Kong – TCSP License.
Insurance: Offers insurance underwritten by Inigo, a syndicate of Lloyds of London’s as well as OneInfinity by OneDegree.
Etana Custody was founded in 2014 and is registered as a company in New Zealand, with offices in the US, UK, UAE, and Hong Kong. The company offers a variety of custody wallet solutions, apparently as an aggregator, with Bitgo, Coinbase and Fidelity providing cold, hot, and Multi-Party Computation (MPC) wallet solutions.
Fees: Etana charges 0.25% for deposits and withdrawals, 0.1% for conversions, and 0.05% for transfers.
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: Etana says as a chartered trust company, it operates under the regulation of the Colorado Division of Banking.
Insurance: Claims insurance is available but no details are provided.
Ledger Vault
From the company that brought you the Ledger hardware wallet, Ledger Vault is part of the Ledger Enterprise suite. The company is based in Paris, France, and has offices in New York, London, Singapore and Hong Kong. Ledger Vault supports over 1800 coins and tokens, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Cosmos and Near. Equity Trust is the go to custody provider for many Bitcoin IRA platforms we have profiled – and interestingly, Equity Trust appears to be outsourcing its custody duties to Ledger Vault.
Fees: Ledger Vault charges a monthly fee based on the number of operators, accounts and HSMs. A company spokesperson says Ledger Vault is currently reworking its fee structure to better serve client needs.
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: Claims to be regulated by the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR)
Insurance: Claims $150 million in ‘crime’ insurance from Lloyd’s of London syndicates.
Metaco
Founded in Switzerland in 2015, Metaco specializes in providing institutional digital asset custody, trading, and decentralized finance (DeFi) services – via a platform called Harmonize. Metaco was purchased by Ripple Inc in 2023. Its target clients are predominantly major financial institutions like banks, looking to expand their offering to include digital asset products.
Fees: Metaco fees require a personal consultation and are not publicly available.
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: Metaco states the following; “Metaco does not manage keys or key shards, it does not participate in any co-signing process nor does it provide any type of financial service which is or could become subject to being regulated.”
Insurance: No specific insurance mentioned. Metaco states it client solutions are “Easily insurable by partner brokers.”
Bitpanda Custody
Based in the UK, Bitpanda provides cryptocurrency custody services for institutional investors, service providers, token issuers and corporate treasuries
Fees: Bitpanda Custody charges a monthly fee based on the number of wallets and the amount of assets under custody. It also charges a transaction fee for deposits and withdrawals.
Licenses / Regulatory Compliance: Bitpanda is registered with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to carry out crypto asset activities.
Insurance: Claims to be insured with Marsh.
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